Men's Fencing

No. 10 Bulldogs Finish Fifth At Ivy League Championships

Nathaniel Benzimra. (photo by Sam Rubin '95, Yale Sports Publicity)

Feb 12, 2012

Tough Second Day of Competition

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — It was a difficult second day of competition for the No. 10 Yale men's fencing team at the Feb. 11-12 Ivy League Championship in Coxe Cage, as the Bulldogs finished the tournament with a 1-4 record to slot in fifth place.

After closing the first day of competition Saturday with a 1-1 record, including a win against Brown and a loss to No. 3 Harvard, the Bulldogs started Sunday poised to contend for the top spots in the championship.

The Elis began Sunday morning with a tough match-up against No. 2 Princeton. The results reflected the disparate rankings: the Tigers won 18-9, including a 8-1 win in sabre and a 7-2 win in epee. But the Bulldogs' foil squad showed resilience, beating out Princeton's squad 6-3.

That match was followed by another difficult set of bouts against No. 7 Penn. In this case, the Bulldogs fell 16-11: the Elis' foil squad won 5-4, while the Quakers took out the sabre 7-2 and epee 5-4.

In the final match of Sunday's competition, the Bulldogs lost to Columbia 18-9. That verdict included a 9-0 sweep in sabre by the Lions and a 5-4 loss in foil. The Bulldogs showed strength in epee, however, eking out a 5-4 victory.

Those results put the Elis in a tie for fifth place with Brown. Princeton took out the competition, which the Bulldogs finished second at last year, while last year's winner, Harvard, closed in second place.

Despite the difficult results, Yale had several strong individual performances. For their outstanding efforts throughout the course of the weekend, freshman James Broughton and sophomore Peter Cohen earned second team All-Ivy honors, in foil and epee respectively.

Next up on the Elis' schedule is the United States Collegiate Squad Championships, held on Feb. 26 at NYU.